The present invention relates generally to detection of the composition of a sample, and more particularly to methods and systems for detecting chemical and/or biological agents in a sample or samples or detecting a chemical/biological change in composition of a sample flow.
Various testing systems have been developed to detect harmful biological agents in samples. Many of these conventional systems use chemical reactions applied to a contained sample over a given time period. By monitoring these chemical reactions, an analysis of the sample is made and identifications of biological agents, if present, are determined. While these conventional systems provide accurate results, there are many drawbacks associated with their use.
In particular, there may be significant delay between the time the sample is received and the results are determined. Chemical reactions take time to occur and process, which introduces delay. Further, systems that use chemical reactions as part of sample testing may require special environmental considerations (e.g., space, temperature control, specialized equipment, etc.) that may make use of such systems impractical for some applications. Chemical reaction analysis solutions are generally complex, too large, and too heavy. They often require sample preparation and minutes to hours to obtain results. Further, they may be limited to a discrete number of analyses before the equipment must be reset or the chemicals used in the reactions replaced.